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My family enjoys consuming fruit….large amounts of fruit! Grapes, apples, oranges, bananas, mangoes…you name it if it is a sweet and tasty fruit we eat it! Even the ones that require work, like cantaloupe, lychees, kiwi, pineapple and honeydew melon, the latter two are what we are dealing with today.

My youngest (DJ), loves melon, but there is that rind that you have to get through to get to the fruit. It’s not a big obstacle, but an obstacle none the less! This past week I purchased a Honeydew Melon and a Pineapple…double trouble :-o. I brought them home knowing that both of them were not quite ripe so I placed them in a warm place out of the way (on top of the fridge) and gave them a few days. I have had instances where I waited too long before paying attention to them, not good! This time I did well and the fruit is in great condition!

Cutting the “difficult” fruits up and storing them in the fridge makes eating fruit very easy! If you have kids it makes things easy for them as well, if they are 5 years or older they can help themselves! Great for lunchtime or afterschool snacks! This also helps you kids enjoy a variety of fruits as opposed to just the “easy” ones.

It is so tempting to stick to what’s easy…I mean who doesn’t love the ease of just grabbing an apple and just biting in, or just grabbing a few grapes in hand…right…easy. That being said one of my absolute favourite fruits is pineapple…juicy…sweet…so good! The only thing is all the rind removal, removing that centre core and cutting up the fruit…exhausting! But once everything is all done there is the reward of that delicious fruit, so all that work is worth it!

In addition to their great taste pineapples are one of the most nutritionally sound fruits in the world! Health benefits include immune system booster, a single serving of pineapple has more than 130% of the daily requirement of vitamin C. Pineapple is also rich in antioxidants including vitamin A, beta-carotene, bromelain and high levels of manganese! This fruit has too many health benefits to mention in my little post, check out this article. To know how a pineapple is ripe take a good sniff, if it smells very pineapply? (I know that’s not a word) then it is ready to be cut up and eaten! If it smells like nothing give it a few more days. Avoid pineapples that smell fermented.

Not to be left out, the honeydew melon is a good source of potassium, vitamin c, b-vitamins and copper. Check out this article to see the other virtues of the honeydew. To get the most benefit and flavour of this melon make sure it is ripe by giving it a sniff, if it smell likes sweet flowers it is ready for eating.

Try a fruit this week that maybe you haven’t tried before. If you do let me know!